Originally Posted by Dovster
The examples which you cite -- and which were deplorable errors in judgement -- occured during wars which endangered the Constitution. Had America lost either world war, the most likely result would have been the end of American democracy.
It is true, as you say, that one submarine sunk would not have lost the war but the logic was that enough acts of sabotage would indeed endanger the war effort.
In fact, in the quote that you gave from FDR's legal advisors the key words were "to preserve the national safety". This does not mean the safety of individuals but of the nation itself.
Individual safety has always come secondary to protection of the Constitution. For this reason, men were drafted and sent to die on the beaches of Iwo Jima and Normandy.
On a lesser scale, people who are known to have committed murder, and may well do so again, are set free when their arrests were the result of violation of the Constitution by the police. Here, too, the safety of the individuals they might someday kill is seen as secondary to the upholding of the Constitution.
My point on this is that the shoe removals, ID checks, no-fly lists, SSSS line, etc. is not a consitituional crisis and/or a disregard for basic civil liberties. In the last 200+ years, the United States under both Democrat and Republican administrations, have placed the security of the nation above the minor inconviences that may be "inflicted" upon people when a few civil liberties are "violated" or bothersome security measures are enforced. These liberties were restored after the danger was eliminated. In this time of peril for the Western World, as in the early 40s, the U.S. government has acted with only the best intentions for the common good of the country. Have some faith in the leaders. Tyrannical rule is not on the horizon due to a few bothersome security plans.
In response to your first paragraph, I disagree. History has been distorted and the facts trampled about the internment, relocation, deportation, etc. The Department of Defense declassified the
MAGIC cables in 1977 and published eight volumes of transmissions that totally vindicate the Roosevelt administration's response to the threat of a fifth column operating in the U.S. Another great work on this matter is the book -
Magic:The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents from the West Coast During WW II by David Lowman NSA official.
It is disingenuous to equate the constitutional rights of a common criminal with the acts of the U.S. government during the prosecution of a war.